If you failed to make your way to Independence to try the Peking duck at Happy Dragon Chinese Restaurant, I'm afraid that, for now, you've missed your chance.

In June 2017, then-Statesman Journal restaurant reviewer Brooke Jackson-Glidden called the Peking duck at the restaurant a "must try," praising the Cantonese cooking that distinguished chef-owner Linan Feng's menu from the Americanized-Chinese food offerings of many other area Chinese restaurants.

On Sunday, August 5th, the Feng family announced the restaurant's closure on their Facebook page:

Due to excessive rent increased [sic], the Happy Dragon Chinese Restaurant is no longer able to provide as we promised 'A fair price authentic Cantonese food' to the neighborhood. It's a tough and heartbreaking decision that we had to announce today, August 5th is our last day of business in Independence.

They went on to thank area patrons and shared plans to reopen the restaurant in Portland, promising to update the restaurant's Facebook page with a new address sometime in September.

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Happy Dragon followed its semi-traditional Peking duck service with a lettuce wrap, using the leftover duck from the serving.(Photo: Brooke Jackson-Glidden / Statesman Journal)

As of Aug. 9, the post has 47 lamenting comments and it had been shared 26 times.

Prior to opening Happy Dragon, chef-owner and family patriarch Linan Feng worked at Portland dim sum destinations Wong's King and Ocean City. The Feng family opened Happy Dragon in 2013 after leasing the building and moving to Independence.

Feng said, as interpreted by his daughter, Emily Feng, that there was no change to the rent in "2013 through 2015...then it increased a couple hundred dollars so we raised our prices twenty cents, and people noticed."

According to Feng, the most recent change outlined by their landlords would have represented a 64 percent increase, and the Feng family decided that even increasing prices again wouldn't make that sustainable.

They made the decision to move back to Portland, where they still have a house, and begin a search for a new restaurant space.

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The celebrated Peking duck at Happy Dragon in Independence, prior to its closure this week.(Photo: Statesman Journal file)

Building owners Johnny Chan and Sandi Lei-Chan, who previously ran Lee Garden Restaurant in the same space and who live in Portland, were reached for comment at their business, JC Rice Noodle Shop and Restaurant.

Lei-Chan declined to speak to the specifics of the rent increase, but insists the story of Happy Dragon's closing is not that of a greedy landlord gouging an established tenant.

Lei-Chan, as interpreted by her daughter, Megan Chan, said the two families knew one another in Portland before the Feng family opened Happy Dragon. When Feng wanted to open a business the Chan's leased them the Independence property at below market value on the shared understanding that the rent would increase as they grew more established.

"It was (the Fengs) first time owning a business," said Chan, emphasizing that her parents "gave them a better deal to help them get started, to help them get on their feet." From the Chan's perspective, the Feng family has been paying below-market rent for years, and that it was clearly communicated in January that the rent would increase this summer relative to the true costs associated with the building.

Chan and Lei-Chan have decided to sell the property in order to focus their attention on running their other business.

County records list the most recent sale date of the 1957 building at 101 Polk Street as November 14, 2001, at the price of $100,000. It is now listed for sale at an asking price of $399,900, including the building, land, equipment, fixtures and sign.

The Feng's, busy packing, are sad to go.

"We truly love the city of Independence," says Feng,"we're so grateful to the neighborhood, to the community. If there's an opportunity for us to move back to Independence we would love that."

Emily Teel is the Food & Drink Editor at the Statesman Journal. Contact her at eteel@statesmanjournal.com, Facebook, or Twitter. See what she's cooking and where she's eating this week on Instagram: @emily_teel